Who are our friends?

Scripture: “I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.” Psalm 119:63

By: Jason Felton

In last week’s blog post we looked at what it means to truly be a friend of God. As we continue our series on the teaching “Friends” we want to take a look at who our friends should be. In a day and age where everybody is networking on the job or involved in all forms of social media we need to make sure we are hanging out with the right people. Everyone of us needs to be a friend of God, but we also need natural (flesh and blood) friends to help us to obtain or remain in that friendship with our heavenly Father. Let’s take a look at who they should be.

Outside of Jesus, your best friend should be your spouse! Unfortunately, in a lot of our lives this isn’t the case. Too many of us don’t have the right relationship with our spouses, and because of that Satan is able to take advantage of us. We’re more vulnerable with other people, and it shouldn’t be so. I Peter 3:6-7 talks about honoring one another in our roles as husband and wife so our prayers are not hindered. How many of our prayers are being hindered because we are not in agreement with our number one prayer partner? We are at war, beloved, and our greatest weapon is prayer. Those prayers will not be effective if our marriages are out of order! Our husband or wife shouldn’t just be our friend; they should be our best friend! They should be the first one we go to whenever we have a problem and the first one we listen to whenever we have a need. It’s God’s order!

Okay, so now that we’ve covered that… who else should we befriend? Well, if Jesus is Lord of your life it should be whoever he picks for you! Too many of us want to pick and choose who we hang out with. Do some people not meet your “standards”? Maybe you want certain friends because of what you can get out of it? That’s not the right criteria! I Corinthians 12:18 says, “He places everybody in the body as it pleases Him.” Your friends should be those whom God places in your life! “Well I don’t know about them because they did this to me. I’m not sure I could be friends with them because of this reason.” It’s not about you! We need to love everybody as we have been loved (John 13:34)! Do you have trust issues? Well think about this. As much as you may have been betrayed or denied by people in your life, it’s nothing compared to your betrayal and denial of Jesus! We’re the debtors!

How committed are you to those God has put in your life? To the people that should be your friends? We have an obligation to those who Father has placed in our lives. Are you more committed to your co-workers, your neighbors, your relatives? “Well of course I’m more committed to my relatives, they’re family!” Do you remember the words of Jesus? He said, “who are my brothers and my mother?” Those who do the will of my Father (Matthew 12:48-50). Have you given your heart away to those who are outside of the kingdom of God, the body of Christ? Many of us have become friends of the world and James 4 tells us that makes us the enemy of God! Now, I’m not saying you can’t hang out with your natural family and I’m not saying we don’t have acquaintances out in the world. What I’m saying is our true friends should be those of like precious faith! We can RELATE to people outside of the group of people we are placed in, but we are COMMITTED to the group of people HE has placed us in!

Brothers and sisters, I know many of you who are reading this are knit into a body of believers, but some of you who may be reading this are not part of a local fellowship. Maybe you’ve relocated. Maybe you’re a new believer (praise God!). Maybe you’ve never heard principles like this before. The fact of the matter is we need other Christians to help us finish! You can’t run this race on your own! Despite what the world may tell you, there is no strength in independence. In fact you are never stronger than when you realize your need for the body of Christ! The greatest enemy you have is thinking of yourself more highly than you ought to think! Thinking that you can do this on your own and that you don’t need any help. You NEED godly friends! People who can bring you edification. People who can bring you reproof and rebuke if need be. People who can bring you the truth of the Word of God that will help you die to self. “Well that can be hurtful sometimes! Nobody is telling me what to do!” I hear you, I really do!! But Proverbs 27:6 says, “the wounds of a friend are necessary.” That’s why we are to have Godly friends! They are around for no other reason, but to help you conform into the image of Jesus!

So as we wrap up this post I ask you the question again: “Who are your friends?” It should be somebody who brings about edification. It should be somebody that prioritizes the eternal.Proverbs 17:17 says, “A true friend loves at all times.” If you have friends that don’t meet this criteria, then maybe it’s time to be a good friend and help them out or go find somebody else to be friends with! Jesus is coming back soon and things are getting worse in worse in the society we live in. I encourage you to trust God’s Word and will for your life and find friends that will help you stand in this evil day! It’s your only hope!!